Hello, and welcome back to The Kable, where, in no surprise, we’re once again leading with Ebola.
Has the outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) come under control? Nope. Not even close. But reported numbers this week seem to indicate that the rate at which the outbreak was exploding may have slightly eased up. At last count, there were 6,942 cases with 3,349 deaths. However, to dampen any optimism comes this late-breaking report that the outbreak has now reached a 7th province in the country. Worryingly, this is the first case in western DRC, lending further credence to what the Africa CDC said in a media briefing about the outbreak rapidly spreading beyond its epicentre. The agency also said emergency funding alone will not be enough to end the outbreak, even as the WHO said funding and people shortages continue to remain massive challenges. Writing in The Conversation, an epidemiologist contends how Ebola could yet become a global pandemic and how we could avoid that happening. And if reports from India about Ebola having arrived there prove to be true, well, we could well be in for that pandemic. India’s health ministry has ostensibly denied this report, saying that the returnees were simply kept in isolation as per protocol. 🤞🏽
Over in Sudan, farmers are saying drought is coming for their agricultural season. As it is, conflict has taken away all the food, and now the climate will leave them unable to grow more.
Not too long after Namibia turned down the US bilateral health deal came this joint announcement about the phasing out of US support for Namibia’s HIV programme. Planned phasing out, might we add.
In Liberia, authorities have commissioned a new vaccine depot in Nimba County to improve vaccine storage, distribution and immunisation services.
Kenya is looking to up its health infra, thanks to two World Bank-supported projects worth $335 million. The projects will strengthen Level 2 and Level 3 health facilities and also support efforts to improve the responsiveness of health institutions and frontline services, while also bolstering Kenya’s ability to prevent, prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.
Another outcome from the recently concluded 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa is the unveiling of the Regional Health Data Hub (RDHUB), intended to serve as a central repository of African public health data.
The Africa CDC, without resorting to any acronyms, released a report on the leading causes of maternal and child mortality in Africa. If conflict caused by foreign actors was included in the report, we’re pretty certain it would’ve ranked very, very high.
Speaking of, in Gaza, the UN says households headed by women are having to choose between impossible choices to survive. Also, the number of households headed by women in Gaza has doubled in the last two years. No prizes for guessing correctly that it is because Israel killed the men in those households. Not that they spared women either. Or children. Just this week, they raided a kindergarten in Gaza, trapping some 200 children under gunfire, with teachers having to calm kids down saying it’s just fireworks. A few days ago, to mark World Physical Therapy Day, the Palestinian Health Ministry released a statement saying it has recorded 5,000 amputation cases in the last two years, apart from the tens of thousands of cases in need of long-term rehabilitation. Oh and the Palestinian economy? Israel is doing its best to choke that off as well. Despite all of this, and all the evidence all of us have witnessed, Germany went to the ICJ this week to say there is no need to prevent genocide because there is no genocide because Israel doesn’t agree. Not surprising. Israel might be the most obvious genocidaires today but if there is another country that knows what that mantle means, it is Germany of course. Not surprising then that Germany is funding projects to assess the impact of removing wells from Palestine and quadrupling its weapons exports to Israel.
Elsewhere, as you might be aware, Indonesia is fighting wildfires that are burning up peatlands. As a consequence, respiratory infections are on the rise, doubling over the month. In case you were wondering, yup, El Niño is responsible too.
In excellent news, the WHO has prequalified Pfizer’s maternal RSV vaccine.
In more confirmation of the fact that sometimes some things don’t change, the US FDA has issued a warning letter to an Indian API manufacturer. Ah, the relief of the familiar.
In the US, hundreds of people went to a petting zoo to pet some baby goats. And exposed themselves to rabies.
Did you think August 2026 was hot? You were spot on. It was so hot it tied with July 2023 as the hottest month ever. It was also the hottest August ever. And possibly, the most humid August ever.
All this heat will obviously affect farming. Good thing OpenAI is putting in $60 million to help farmers use AI for forecasting. Why is the UN talking about the Environmental Cost of AI’s Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints?
And finally, coffee. Our favourite researchers are at it with a study that says coffee is responsible for healthier and slower ageing. As if we didn’t know that. Just protect your oesophagus by waiting for the coffee to cool down a bit, okay?
Stories Of The Week
I’ll huff, and I’ll puff... and I’ll blow your house down. Don’t smoke? No problem. Smoking can still kill you. A major study published in The Lancet Public Health estimates that second-hand smoke was linked to around 1.7 million deaths worldwide in 2023, with 2.71 billion non-smokers exposed at home or work. That included 767 million children.
Researchers from the University of Washington combined exposure estimates from 204 countries with established links between passive smoking and nine diseases. Heart disease led the table, accounting for roughly 537,000 deaths, followed by COPD, stroke, respiratory infections and cancers of the lung, bronchus and trachea. Exposure has fallen proportionally since 1990, but population growth has helpfully ensured the absolute number of people inhaling somebody else’s smoke has barely budged. China, India and Indonesia alone accounted for almost half of everyone exposed worldwide. And those figures may still be an undercount. The study only measured exposure at home and at work, leaving out cars, bars, restaurants and all the other places where you unwittingly get that nicotine high.
(The Lancet Public Health)
All I ever wanted was to go to school. Back in the day, really heavy rain was the odd reason for a one-day school break for this editor. Some people may remember similar holidays for snow or other once-in-a-while occurrences. Except, for the present generation and for all future ones, those are no longer fluke events. Climate change is hell-bent on cancelling school.
According to UNICEF, more than 171 million students, or about one in ten school-age children worldwide, had their education disrupted by climate hazards in 2025, as storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and wildfires closed classrooms, shortened lessons and shoved pupils towards remote learning. Storms alone affected 109 million students, floods at least 70 million and heatwaves around 50 million.
As usual, the inconvenience was not distributed with anything resembling fairness. Three-quarters of affected students lived in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Pakistan’s monsoon floods delayed the return to school for more than 28 million students, while a single dust storm in Egypt suspended classes nationwide for another 28 million. Forty countries suffered multiple rounds of disruption.
And the damage is not temporary. UNICEF estimates that the interruptions experienced in 2025 could eventually cost affected students at least $200 billion in lifetime earnings, while girls face a particularly high risk of never returning to school at all. Recommendations? Sure UNICEF has some. Like stronger school infrastructure, better emergency learning systems and more climate-resilient education planning. Or, you know, build school systems for the climate as it is and as it will be, rather than as it once was.
(UNICEF)
The other C. If 171 million children have their schooling affected by climate change, here comes conflict to trump it, laying claim to learning interruptions for 258 million children across 87 countries. And a further 93 million who are out of school. Attacks on education hit a record high in 2024 and 2025, with at least 9,259 incidents recorded across 28 countries. More than 3,600 of these attacks were on schools. More than 10,600 students and educators were killed, injured or abducted, while the military use of schools nearly doubled. The consequences go way beyond schooling. Years outside school leave children more vulnerable to recruitment, trafficking and exploitation, while refugee children, internally displaced youngsters and children with disabilities are especially likely to be shut out of education altogether.
(UN News)
Bottom line
Everybody, pull together now. Has polluted air contributed to climate change? Heck yes. So can we work on cleaning the air and slowing climate change together? The UN certainly seems to think so. And not just that, the UN says it is only the economically prudent thing to do. There are 25 measures for tackling the two problems together. And they could generate around $15 in economic benefits for every $1 spent. Even if you remove harder-to-price gains such as longer, healthier lives, the return is still about four to one. What are the measures, you ask? Renewable power, cleaner cooking, electric vehicles, tighter emissions standards and plugging oil and gas leaks. Okay, yeah. We know.
But human-caused outdoor air pollution was linked to an estimated 6.4 million premature deaths in 2025, with household pollution associated with another two million. Fully implementing these UN recommendations could prevent 144 million premature deaths by 2050, while cutting carbon dioxide emissions in half, methane by 60 per cent and avoiding about 0.34°C of warming by mid-century. Can do?
(UN News)
Outpacing us. There is good news. And the good news is that humans are getting better at surviving extreme heat. The bad news is that extreme heat is improving considerably faster. After the deadly European heatwave of 2003, countries introduced warning systems, cooling centres, hospital preparedness and protections for vulnerable people; France, for example, has made comparable heatwaves substantially less deadly. But a new analysis suggests that if adaptation continues at roughly its recent pace, it will prevent only about one in ten heat-related deaths expected as temperatures rise.
That gap is already becoming difficult to ignore. Western Europe endured five major heatwaves this summer, with early estimates pointing to at least 35,000 excess deaths from just the first four across roughly half the continent. Warning systems themselves are being overtaken as extreme temperatures arrive outside traditional heat seasons and exceed the conditions planners designed them for. Scientists are now urging governments to “stress test” cities for previously unthinkable heat, including what happens to hospitals, power grids, transport and basic infrastructure when temperatures smash historical records.
(Grist)
Long reads
Move to Africa. An AI company has prepared a report of the world’s largest cities and how prepared they are for the climate of the future. If you stay in South Asia, you may want to move. NOW.
(Earther)
Doom? Not on our page. UNEP released a new report last week called Limiting Overshoot. This whole issue of The Kable has been fairly doomerish. Why not read the report and end on the same note?
(UNEP)
And finally, in the latest issue of Linchpin Magazine, say hello to Aamer, who’s seeking to reshape the contours of the industry he grew up in with Alanar One Health Fund, a ₹126 crore Category II AIF focused exclusively on India’s pharma engineering sector.